A weapon, such a rifle (a bow, crossbow or the like), is often used in combination with one or more accessories that may be mounted to the weapon. One such accessory is a sighting scope. There may also be accessories for the accessories, such as scope magnifiers or night vision devices. Where an accessory is in the nature of a sight, it may quite naturally be positioned along the “line-of-sight” (e.g., in line with the gun barrel) so that a user may better align the weapon with the intended target. In such cases it may also be desirable to quickly reposition the sight out of the line-of-sight. For example, if a scope magnifier is used in combination with a sighting scope, it may be desirable to allow the magnifier to be selectively moved from a use position (where it is aligned with the sighting scope) into an out of the way/inactive position (where it is not aligned with the sighting scope).
An early reference that disclosed an apparatus for repositioning an accessory in and out of a weapon's line-of-sight was German Patent No. 142545 (1903) to Polzin. In Polzin, an apparatus is described that allowed a rifle mounted scope to be automatically pivoted out of an active or line-of-sight position by the force of a clock spring.
Another reference, Great Britain Patent No. 468,237 to Taylor, disclosed a pivoting sight mount that could be biased into operational or deactivated positions by use of a spring-biased plunger “N” engaging detents on a pivot shaft “k”.
In a still further reference, U.S. Pat. No. 2,385,176 to White, a pivoting sight mount was described that could be selectively retained in active or inactive positions by operation of a latch. The latch disclosed by White included a spring-biased pin that operated to engage recesses in a pivotable rod or shaft.